AERODROME FOR FIJI

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24895, 7 June 1946, Page 5

AERODROME FOR FIJI

PACIFIC DOMINIONS TO SHARE COST

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, June 6. Fiji has become the site of an international aerodrome. The New Zealand Government has undertaken all the constructional, staffing, and maintenance work connected with the project at a cost to be borne equally with Britain, Australia, and Canada. Though Fiji has a large military aerodrome at Nandi about 100 miles by road from Suva, it is regarded as being unsuitable for international civil use. Another airfield much smaller, used by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, outside Nausori nearer Suva, is favoured. Nausori is 15 miles by road from Suva. The field there was built for light aircraft and is admirably situated. The extension of its existing facilities necessary for its new international status will involve heavy expenditure. A New Zealand mission recently toured the Pacific and bought meteorological, radio, and actual maintenance equipment for aerodromes from the Americans. This will be not only for Fiji, but also for the Dominion’s airfields at Samoa, Aitutaki, Tonga, and Rarotonga. When the war ended the Americans withdrew equipment from the islands they had occupied fqr military purposes and were evacuating. This is reported to have slowed down the establishment of British Commonwealth civil air services in the south-west Pacific. This country’s extra interest in Fiji does not mean that many men from here will be employed there. Labourers will be natives under the direction of a few men of the Public Works Department. Skilled radio meteorolotjical workers will go from New Zealand, while the weather information service which began during the war will also be maintained.